Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

ICR Museum Can’t Has Membership

With all the attention paid to Ken Ham’s creation museum over the last few years, it’s easy to forget about the Institute for Creation Research’s museum in Southern California. And the local museum council apparently wants to forget about them, since they denied them membership in their organization:

Santee is home to one of the few creationist museums in the country. Last week, the San Diego Museum Council voted not to allow The Museum of Creation and Earth membership into its group.

The creation museum needed 21 “yes” votes to become a council member. They lost by only two votes.

The museum presents a biblical account of creation through its exhibits and education programs.

Danielle Susalla Deery is president of the San Diego Museum Council. She said the museum’s membership was not rejected because of its mission but because of other factors.

“Like their animal care and the protocol and care of their exhibitions and storage. They had a lot of areas that were not in line with membership guidelines. They have a staff member on the board of directors and that’s not good governance,” Deery said.

Oh come on, just say it. They were denied membership because they are to museums what David Barton is to history. They present nothing but ridiculous lies. It’s okay to deny them membership for that reason.

Oh come on, just say it. They were denied membership because they are to museums what David Barton is to history.

Are you sure that was the real reason? The fact that they got 19 “yes” votes kind of implies either they didn’t care about that, or they were scared to come out and say it, and had to cover their sixes by citing membership guidelines.

What kind of museums are being run by those 19 individuals who voted to include this freak side-show act? Surely they can’t be serious establishments. This isn’t about animal care or if they dust off their exhibits occassionally. Its whether a musuem depicts the truth or presents fairy tales as reality.

Hahahaa, I’ve actually been in that Creation “Museum” before. I used to work for a company that had one our manufacturing plants right next door. I’d go down to Santee every couple of months. There isn’t a whole lot in the area, and one day I got bored and went in (I may or may not have had a few beers at the bar down the street prior). I don’t have much to say about it, other than it’s EXACTLY what you’d expect.

The thing is, I actually wouldn’t mind going to a humanities museum that had exhibits for the creation stories of lots of different religions. It would be interesting in a kind of “oh, I can see the historical and cultural influences that led to these stories” kind of way.

Of course, some people might find it interesting in a “this is really what some people still believe?” kind of way. Christian creationists might claim that the Christian exhibit is unfairly exaggerating biblical text to make creationism seem more absurd than it is, but it would probably have the same content that is already in the real creationist museums. If an atheist depicts humans riding dinosaurs, that’s unfair, but if a true creationist does so, other creationists will think, “Yeah, that seems accurate.”

I use to live in Santee. Its’ quite a nice little bedroom community outside of San Diego. I knew the mayor and the president of the Chamber of Commerce and we’d often have dinner together at a local restaurant. The Mayor once admitted to me that he considered it an embarrassment to the city to have the ICR there.

Locally, both among the citizens and the city government, the ICR is seen as a joke. They’re seen as a fringe group who nobody takes seriously. So take hope from that.

I use to live in Santee. Its’ quite a nice little bedroom community outside of San Diego. I knew the mayor and the president of the Chamber of Commerce and we’d often have dinner together at a local restaurant. The Mayor once admitted to me that he considered it an embarrassment to the city to have the ICR there.

Locally, both among the citizens and the city government, the ICR is seen as a joke. They’re seen as a fringe group who nobody takes seriously. So take hope from that.

Well take even more hope because Santee is a working class town; at least from what I recall living in San Diego in the early-2000s.

I bring this up because was when I originally read Ed’s blog post, I was cringing thinking that perhaps the fundies were able to abuse public school students there as well. To hear that the town considers them a fringe group has me hoping my speculation on their abusive impact on children is limited to their own sects’ kids, which is still a largely unrecognized tragedy.